Insights on Becoming a B Corporation

Written By:Ryan Allis, CEO of iContact

In May of 2010, we took the next major leap in our effort to turn iContact into a leader in social responsibility for venture-backed companies. After speaking with Drew Tulchin at Social Enterprise Associates, I knew if we really were going to be a Triple Bottom Line company, we had to have some type of external help putting in place a tracking system for our social and environmental impact. The next weekend I serendipitously met Matt Kopac at Sunday brunch with a group of Durham friends. Matt had just finished up an MBA at Yale and was looking for work in the area with a non-profit or socially responsible enterprise. He had done work with VisionSpring and had been in the Peace Corps in Benin. We brought Matt on, initially as a half-time consultant.

Matt’s assignment was simple–put in place a measurement system for social and environmental impact, manage our 4-1’s CSR program and help us put in place the changes necessary to become a B Corp. B Corps are are a new type of corporation that use the power of business to create public benefit.

When we first took the B Corp assessment, we scored 67 points. The assessment graded us within five categories: accountability, consumers, environment, employees, and community.

We then underwent an eight-week process that Matt led to conduct an environmental/energy audit, and supplier audit and put in place some needed changes to policies and sustainable supplies.

On June 30, we finally passed the 80 point threshold needed. B Lab officially certified iContact as a B Corp! We had reached the next milestone for our process of becoming a leader in social responsibility and creating company culture that tied the work each employee did every day with meaningful impact, and we received a signed Declaration of Interdependence.

Tracking our Social & Environmental Impact

Once we became a B Corp, we needed a way to be able to track our social and environmental impact. Matt Kopac worked with our internal Salesforce.com administrator to install PULSE into Salesforce AppExchange, which is free for B Corps.

Below is a screen shot of PULSE showing a few of the environmental metrics tracked within PULSE for iContact.

In Salesforce PULSE, we track the following social and environmental metrics, in beautiful graph format, in a location that is accessible to every iContact Employee. You can imagine how much easier this system makes it to track and view our triple bottom line metrics.

Current PULSE Social Impact Metrics Tracked

Total Energy Consumed

Energy Consumption Per Employee

Total Water Use (Liters)

Total Water Use Per Employee

Total Irrigation Liters Used

Sheets of Paper Used

Recycled Paper Used as % of Total

Current PULSE Environmental Impact Metrics Tracked

Dollars Contributed to Non-Profits

Number of Non-Profits Contributed To

Value of In-Kind Contributions

% of Sales of Giving

Number of Jobs Created

Staff Turnover Rate

Number of Non-Profits Given Free Product

% of 4-1’s Non-Profits as Customers

New 4-1’s Non-Profits Per Month

4-1’s Non-Profits Emails Sent

Number of Non-Profits Trained

Number of B Corps as Customers

Monthly Employee volunteer Hours

Cumulative Volunteer Hours

Article Info

Feb 09, 2011Written by Ryan Allis, who has written 12 articles for the iContact Blog.